Netflix on Android gets “screen lock” to prevent accidental touches

Netflix has recently added a new “screen lock” button for Android devices and it does what exactly what the name describes — it locks your screen.

So why do we need “screen lock”? If your phone is your main platform to enjoy Netflix content, then you’ll know that accidental touches can be annoying and sometimes cause you to pause your Netflix or stop your playback. Well, if you enable “screen lock”, all these problems will go away. The play/pause button and the timeline scrubber will disappear; instead you’ll get an indication that your screen is locked and you’ll need to tap twice to unlock it.

But it’s not entirely fool-proof; The Verge pointed out that Android system gestures will still work even if you’ve enabled “screen lock”. It’s more useful against toddlers who might mess with your phone when you’re watching Netflix.

Interestingly, this feature is only available on Android devices. 9to5Google reported that “it arrived on a server-side change” so we don’t know when or if iOS devices will get this feature.